Join Women in Comms for its upcoming networking breakfast in Denver, Colorado, on September 28 where we'll be tackling the question of, "what's the matter with the tech industry?"

Just as parents are getting used to the idea of raising digital natives -- children born with iPhones as hands, essentially -- a new challenge has cropped up: children of automation. Kids born in 2017 have automation to look forward to in their future jobs, homes, vehicles and pretty much every other aspect of their lives, so they better be acquainted from the get-go. In a New York Times article titled, "How to Prepare Preschoolers for an Automated Economy," the authors explain that, "To prepare [for an automated world], children need to start as early as preschool. Foundational skills that affect whether people thrive or fall behind in the modern economy are developed early, and achievement gaps appear before kindergarten." In fact, the education emphasis has recently shifted from sitting behind a computer and coding to moving around and working with machines, i.e., robots. (See The Hidden (Human) Cost of Automation, NFV, SDN, Big Data – It's All About Automation and Will AI Create More Jobs Than It Destroys?)

The Robots Are Coming (for Your Kid's Toys)

Tufts Researcher Amanda Sullivan works with young children on her new "robot curriculum."

A surprising new poll finds that men are still the preferred co-worker gender for the majority of people, MSN reports. Furthermore, gender diversity in the office wasn't even found to be important to most people. While more than 90% of people said they were fine with having either a male or female supervisor, only 6% of men and women stated that they prefer to work alongside female coworkers. We can't say we understand this one, though we're open to interpretations in the comments. See the full poll results below. (See AT&T's Donovan: Women Adapt Faster Than Men and WiCipedia: Eradicating Pay Gaps & Squashing Bro Culture.)

What Gives?

Think tech is so jam-packed with nerds that it can't possibly be cool? Think again. Vogue Codes from Vogue Australia is all about the movers and shakers of the fashion industry who have used tech to elevate their brands. Body + Soul profiled two ladies who forged their own paths with tech in unique ways that are all about following passion. ClassPass founder and Vogue Codes speaker Payal Kadakia, and Taryn Williams of theright.fit, a talent booking agency, have proven that, "Technology allows you to really dream up anything you want to do," as Williams says. Both women also stress the need for new skills that may be uncomfortable but that are crucial to stay at the top of your game. Kadakia adds, "You can always hire people with the right skill set, but success is more about a person's tenacity, passion and drive ... Build it and get it out there so that you can get feedback as quickly as possible ... Nothing will ever go 100 per cent according to plan, so it's how you adapt and move on." (See WiCipedia: The Cool Tech Girl & Rallycross Racing.)

The hacker community has historically been very male-dominant, but
Facebook is setting out to change that. Forbes explains that Facebook's Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos is tackling diversity head-on at the social media site, and will not tolerate injustices against minorities in the field. Using sexual harassment incidences at hacker conference DEF CON as an example, Stamos said, "Every single person at the conference can make sure they're treating people fairly and that they're calling out behavior they think is unacceptable." Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, added, "'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' does not apply to harassing women in tech." (See Verizon CISO Paves Way for Women in Cybersecurity and Does Facebook Have a Code for Gender Bias?)

Iain, Jamie and Scott move on from the rigors of MWC by reflecting on some of the conversations they had in Barcelona about how much progress we have made with NFV. The answer seems to vary wildly according to who you speak to and it seems clear that industry consensus remains elusive. Jamie then talks us through some of the highlights of the next version of ...

Matrixx Software Founder and VP of Marketing, Jennifer Kyriakakis, explains why digital transformation goes hand-in-hand with diversity and inclusion in the workforce. Jennifer shares how Matrixx Software has made both a priority.

Susan Johnson, SVP Global Supply Chain of AT&T, discusses her leadership strategy and how her background in investment banking prepared her for a career in the telecom industry. Susan also talks about lessons learned from the different roles she has held at AT&T over the course of her career.

Ovum analyst Camille Mendler explains why the tech and mobile industries need to focus on delivering enterprise solutions that can be understood and used by anyone as the millennial generation begins to comprise the majority of the workforce.

World leaders, billionaire business execs and tech industry leaders are at Davos for the World Economic Forum. Unfortunately for them, we couldn't make it, but, as Dan Allen contends, two important news stories from Spain this week demonstrated the growing tech-jobs disconnect now common the world over and highlighted what those at the forum should be ...

Forget the self-driving car, Cisco is aiming for the self-managed network – one where machine learning and automation propel both innovation and efficiency. At CES, Cisco SVP and GM of the service provider business Yvette Kanouff talks about how operators can transition toward more automated operations, and also why the annual consumer electronics show is ...

PRAGUE -- Lauren de la Fuente, vice president of marketing and communications at Boingo Wireless, and Terri Reintjes, director of architecture strategy at Sprint, reflect on how their experience as women in the telecom industry has changed over the last 30 years and where there's still room for improvement -- whether it's in supporting more diverse teams or ...

LONDON, 12/4/2017 – There are skill shortages in many emerging technology areas, such as artificial intelligence, notes Carolyn Dawson, managing director of the TMT unit for KNect 365, an Informa business. Attracting and training more women to the tech field will help the industry grow faster and better explore a broader range of possibilities. Dawson heads the ...

In a digital economy, a company's success is based on its relationship with the end user and the experience that customer has in using a product or service, says Sigma Systems CTO Catherine Michel, speaking as a panelist at Light Reading's Women in Communications luncheon in London earlier this month. A male-dominated environment will miss out on key aspects of ...